The Philadelphia Flyers needed this one. Or, at the very least, they needed to show signs that they were trending in the right direction after a stretch of frustrating losses. And while the effort was certainly there against the New Jersey Devils, the results still weren’t.
A 3-1 loss to a divisional rival doesn’t sting any less just because the process looked better. At this point in the season, points are what matter most, and the Flyers are watching valuable ones slip away.
It wasn’t an outright poor performance—far from it. They were more structured than in some of their recent defeats, and they didn’t let the game get away from them the way they have in past matchups.
But the same nagging issues lingered: an inability to finish their chances, stretches of disconnected play, and just not enough offensive punch when it mattered.
1. The Finishing Touch Still Isn’t There
The Flyers and Devils remained fairly even on shots throughout the entire game. They had their fair share of dangerous looks. But once again, the lack of finishing ability came back to bite them.
This isn’t new—go back through their recent losses, and the story is largely the same. The effort is there, the zone time is often there, but the final execution? Missing. They had chances to turn this game in their favor, but too many shots either missed the net, got blocked, or went right into the pads of Devils goaltender Jake Allen.
It’s not like the Flyers don’t have offensive talent. The Tippett-Couturier-Michkov and Foerster-Cates-Brink lines have both been playing well in terms of chance generation, and Jamie Drysdale’s goal definitely provided a spark in the last few minutes.
But at some point, “creating chances” has to turn into actual goals. That’s the missing ingredient right now.
This team has found ways to win this season even without an elite goal-scorer, but in tight games like this, they need someone to step up and bury those key moments. The Devils weren’t overwhelmingly better, but they were clinical in their finishing. That was the difference.
2. Matvei Michkov’s First-Period Benching Wasn’t Just About One Play
When John Tortorella shortened his bench after the Devils’ first goal, sitting Matvei Michkov for the remainder of the first period, it sparked immediate reaction….